The sciences division was the corps of officers and crewmen within Starfleet who specialized in both scientific and medical research and control functions on starbases, aboard starships, and at Starfleet Command. Members of the sciences division specialized in sensors, research, theoretical and physical laboratory work, biological studies, and also as technicians, medics, and surgeons.

Beginning with the EarthStarfleet of the 2140s and 2150s, line officers and noncoms of science division wore blue division stripes on their uniforms. This use of blue continued through several uniform styles until 2260s. On starships, such as the USS Enterprise, science division crewmembers had a specialty insignia in their insignia patch, a circle with two longitudinal lines dividing it.

By the 2270s, new uniforms showed different division colors, with the sciences division signified by two differing colors. Science research and technical staff wore orange behind their Starfleet badge, on uniform bands, accessories, and epaulets. Medical crew wore green badge backings and accessories.

The sciences division was changed again with the 2280s uniforms, with green continuing to represent medical personnel, but science and technical staff now wore gray colors (which was a style shared by services personnel of operations division). The insignia used gave the officer the option of wearing command division white uniform insignia, with another department color like sciences' banded across, or the opposite, with department color insignia (green or grey, in this case) with command white banded across.

On the uniforms used from 2350s onward, blue had again become the sciences division color.

The second variant of the 2371 uniform, while still referred to as blue, was actually a shade of green, jungle green. The color was later be applied to the 2373 uniforms as well.

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Officers within this division are mostly limited to scientific or medical assignments such as doctors, nurses and scientists working in a variety of disciplines. These officers will serve as department heads such as chief medical officers and head science officers. Opportunities for command assignments are somewhat limited for these officers due to their lack of overall command experience and training. However, officers who have taken and passed the Bridge Officer's Test can be promoted in rank to Commander and are certified to command a starship if necessary. In most instances, however, science division officers will only take command of a ship or starbase in the absence of other senior officers due to such circumstances as an emergency, illness of a commanding officer or manpower shortages as may occur in wartime, for example. Additionally, these officers may fill the role of executive officer where needed. Jadzia Dax, for instance, took over as XO and then commander of the USS Defiant during the Dominion War when the situation required it. (TNG: "Tapestry", "Lessons", "Thine Own Self"; DS9: "Behind the Lines")

Apparently officers with degrees of scientific or technical training held positions in other departments than just science and medical. Extra characters in blue uniforms were often seen occupying posts normally occupied by command or operations division personnel, up to and including captaincy. One notable example is Hoshi Sato who performed the role of an operations communications officer, while wearing the department color of a exolinguist.

The decision to switch the meaning of the colors for command and ops divisions between the TOS and TNG uniform styles was made in pre-production of "Encounter at Farpoint". However, the TOS blue was kept as the sciences division color.

Most often, in the Federation Starfleet, all captains and admirals wore command division colors; however there were exceptions, which proves that this was not a requirement. In TOS, CaptainKrasnovsky wore a science blue dress uniform, the only captain in Trek to ever do so.